Ala. Democrats charged with corruption

Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Larry Langford has been charged with accepting nearly $250,000 in bribes from two former top officials of Alabama's Democratic Party. Both former state party chairman William Blount, a Montgomery investment banker, and former state party executive director Al LaPierre also have been charged in connection with the alleged scheme:

The charges stem from a long-running federal investigation surrounding bond deals that were at the center of Jefferson County's upgrade of its sewer system, deals that have left the county billions of dollars in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.

The 80-page federal indictment in this case is online, and the Birmingham News has a special page about the Langford case. Democrats have claimed for months that the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was a politically motivated "witch hunt" orchestrated by Karl Rove. We'll see if they'll try the same defense for Langford, Blount and LaPierre.

All these (allegedly) corrupt Democrats -- somebody ought to write a book about it.

(Cross-posted at AmSpecBlog.)

UPDATE: The Washington Times:

"It was a classic pay-to-play scheme," said Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney for Northern Alabama whose office is prosecuting the case. . . .
Mr. Langford dismissed the charges as politically motivated, accusing Miss Martin, a Bush appointee, of targeting him because he is a Democrat.
"This is certainly no surprise to us - we anticipated something happening soon especially knowing Alice Martin's days in office are numbered with the swearing in of a new president in late January - just a little over a month from now," said a statement released by his office.

Amazing how the Bush administration has prosecuted so many Republicans -- including former Reps. Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham and Sen. Ted Stevens -- and yet whenever a Democrat gets charged with anything, it's always a political witch hunt.

UPDATE II: Jammie Wearing Fool notes that some media coverage of this case is of the "Name That Party" variety. The B'ham News makes the first reference to Blount and LaPierre as "friends" of the mayor, rather than as former state Democratic Party officials.